Industrial engineer co-authors new book on health care service engineering

Harriet Nembhard, professor of industrial engineering, has co-authored a new book titled "Healthcare Delivery Systems," published by Wiley.Image: Paul Hazi

Industrial engineer co-authors new book on health care service engineering

March 29, 2016

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Harriet Nembhard, professor of industrial engineering, has co-authored a new book titled “Healthcare Delivery Systems,” published by Wiley. Nembhard is also the director of the Penn State Center for Integrated Healthcare Delivery Systems (CIHDS).

The book offers a comprehensive look at the health care system, health care delivery and health care systems modeling. Examples and case studies are presented to help readers learn how to look at the health care system as a complex system by applying relevant design and engineering principles to advance improvements.

The book should also help readers understand the health care delivery context, use statistical and quantitative models, improve existing delivery systems and design new more efficient models, and apply systems engineering to a variety of health care challenges.

Co-authors of the book are: Paul Griffin, Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello Chair in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech; Christopher DeFlitch, vice chair of clinical operations and chief medical information officer at Penn State Hershey Medical Center; Nathaniel Bastian (doctoral student, industrial engineering); as well as Penn State industrial engineering doctoral alumni Hyojung Kang, research assistant professor, Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia; and David Muñoz, an associate at McKinsey & Company.

DeFlitch is a cofounder of CIHDS and serves on the center’s board while Griffin was the head of the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State prior to his appointment at Georgia Tech in January 2015.

The book was recently named the “Book of the Month” by Industrial Engineer magazine, which is published by the Institute of Industrial Engineers, and is available online through Amazon.com.